Fuel mixture containing oxidized petroleum products



Fatented Nov. 25, 1924.

NED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

annex in. WEBER, or CALDWELL, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR 'ro ELLIS-FOSTER com- PANY, A conronn'rron on NEW JERSEY.

MIXTURE CONTAINING OXIDIZED PETROLEUM PRODUCTS.

No Drawing. 1

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known thatl, HARRY M. WEBER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Caldwell. in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fuel Mixtures Containing Oxidized Petroleum Products, of'which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to fuel mixtures containing oxidized petroleum products and relates particularly to volatile liquid fuels. containing the products of partial oxidation of petroleum and especially cracked and oxidized petroleum material.

The invention in the preferred form is concerned with mixtures of such oxidized petroleum material with other combustible liquids such as benzol, alcohol, acetone, ether and the like. I

The following procedure will serve to illustrate-the invention but it should be un derstood that the data furnished are simply for purposes of illustration and that variationsmay be'made within wide limits without departure from the spirit'of the invention. l

Thus a petroleum oil, which may be either light or heavy oil and which in the present instance is kerosene, is cracked by passing through a cracking tube at a temperature of between about 538 and 593 C. The cracked material is admixed with air insuficient in amount for complete combustion in fact being adequate only to oxidize .the cracked material only to a limited extent. I The mixture of air and cracked petroleum is passed throu h a mass of vanadium oxide catalyst,-

place in a U-tube and heated in a bath of molten lead. The temperature of the bath is about dill-443 C. Thev material leavingthe catalytic mass is passed through a condenser and an oil is obtained which in the present case showed the following distillation points:

Per cent,

assess;

Application filed April 13, 1923. Serial No. 631,913.

tained up to. 180 (1. a series of motor fuel mixtures were repared containing ethyl or denatured alco o1 in which it-was found the distillate of oxidized hydrocarbons exhibited a behavior substantially differing from ordinary gasoline.

Commercial gasoline andordinary denatured alcohol do not .readily mix for example. in equal proportion. An overwhelming amount of alcohol will dissolve gasoline, for example 5 parts of denatured alcohol to 1 part of gasoline the proportions being by volume. I Gasoline in excess does not dissolvealcoholreadily.

In contrast to this the oxidized distillate rangingup to 180 C. in boiling point when mixed with denatured alcohol at room temperature was found to be miscible in all proportions. Eventhough the denaturedalco hol contained a small amount of water the mixtures obtained were quite clear at room temperature. Theaddition of a small quantity of commercial gasoline caused separation of the liquid intotwo layers unless they alcohol was present. in excess. I found that when 4 parts of alcohol to l-part of ordinary gasoline was-added to the oxidized distillate that separation did snot take place and the mixture could be diluted with the oxidized distillate considerably. -Equal arts of gasoline, oxidizeddistillate and enatured alcohol separate into two layers but the ad: dition of one-half part of benzol causes the. mixture to become miscible audit is possible to dilute this mixture to aiconsiderable degree with alcohol without causing separation. When the gasoline content of a mixture of the oxidized distillate, gasoline and alcohol is increased a corresponding in-.

crease in the ben'zol used must be made in order to obtain a clear solution. Theoxidizedmaterial boiling'up to 180- C. may be mixed in allpro ortions with methyl alcoholor acetone. so it may be mixed with carbon bisulphide or petroleum ether.

Naphthalene dissolves in it readi1y.

A heavier distillate of oxidized oi'l whose boiling point ranges from 180265 C. also was found to be miscible with denatured I alcohol The oxidized heavy distillate could be mixed readily with ordinary commercial gasoline'without separation, for example 1 I arts by volume part of the formerto 4 of the latter. A. similar mixture with pressure still gasoline proved. to be entirely miscible. One part of the oxidized heavier distillate, 3-jpartsof pressure still gasoline, and 1 part of benzol'were miscible: One part of oxidized heavy distillate, 1 part of" enzoland 1 part of denatured alcohol were miscible. V A

The present invention therefore enables mixtures of alcohol such as methyl and ethyl alcohols and denatured alcohol and the like to be used as toform a substantial part of a volatile fuel mixtureas a blend with oxidizedgasoli ne or kerosene or similar' oxidized distillates as aforesaid, In-

like manner isopropyl' alcohol, acetone, ether, carbon bisulphide-and variousv othervolatile'inflammable liquirlsimay be addedor incorporated with the oxidized material with or Without any of the other. fuelfconstituents aforesaid.

The oxidized material that'it is less liable to cause knocking in anint'ernal combustion enginei than is the.

case with the unoxidized' hydrocarbons from which the oxidized material is ob-, tained. This coupled with its -miscibility with alcohol enables the production of mo 7 tor fuels which have ,a power or energy valuecapable of giving a more substantial mileage per gallon thanalcohol and having better qualities of ignitability and the like. The oxidized products which arewobtai ned by treating cracked petroleunrmaterial and Which are miscible'with alcohol are I believe better fuels thanmixtures of ordinary gasolineor kerosene with alcohol wherein the condition of miscibility is brought about by the addition of athird liquid. The latter 'fuelscarry what maybe termedpincompatible'substanc'es and in'the present inventioncompatible'bodies may be brought together to form an alcohol containingfuel of'notable value. l

ethyl alcohol more particularly in its com- "mercially available form that is denatured alcohol will dissolvela certain relatively small amount of ordinary naturalgasoline but on the other hand that such gasoline will not 'dissolvefal'cohol" in like manner. Hence if the problem" in hand-is to produce' a fuel containing only a moderate amount of denatured alcohol, say 20 per 'cent up to per cent natural gasoline and natural kerosene cannot be employed to make a miscible fuelwithout the addition has the advantage F mm the foregomg'it will. be; clear that of a third ingredient of blending agent. In thepresent nvention a fuel can be made without seeking such a third constituent, a fuel being simply prepared by mixing the alcohol and miscible oxidized products as aforesaid in desired proportions. Hence mi xtures consisting for exampleof -20 to 50 per cent of alcohol, the balance being substantially oxidized petroleum, preferably cracked oxidized petroleum may be made easily, simply and cheaply, affording fuels of good power value readily ignitible andpossessing'redu'cedtendency to engine knocking. There is no occasion to add an extraneous blending agent to bring about the miscibility of thesetwo ingredients.

4. A liquichfuel. comprising miscible I cracked oxidized petroleum material boil ing up to about 180 admixed with approximately an equal volume of denatured alcohol.

' 5L'A motor fuel comprising not in excess of .5 0 per cent of denatured alcohol incorporated with miscible oxidized petroleum substantially devoid ofextraneous material serving as' a blending agent;

6. A motor fuel comprising not to exceed aboutv50 per cent of denatured alcohol incorporated with cracked oxidized liquid 'fuel of; petroleum origin, the mixture being miscible without the addition of extraneous blending agents. 7

7. A. motor fuel containing an oxidized petroleum product and an oxidized paraffin.

i 8. A motor fuel containing an oxidized 7 product from cracked petroleum and an oxidized paraffin.

'HARRY M. WEBER. 

